Unit Studies: Nursery Rhymes and Outer Space

NURSERY RHYMES

This past month Luke and Jonathan really enjoyed making a book of 11 nursery rhymes and a corresponding lapbook. Nursery Rhymes naturally help young children develop phonemic awareness skills, which are necessary building blocks to begin reading. The lapbook was so much fun! Thanks to 123 Homeschool 4 Me for the free printables!

OUTER SPACE

Caleb had a blast learning about outer space. We talked about all the planets in our solar system, the milky way galaxy, constellations, moon phases, and astronauts and spaceships.

Caleb's outer space lap book

Moon phases with oreos. Yes, this was probably their favorite OS activity!

We found a cool outer space craft kit at TJMax ( I love that store!) This gadget showed the solar system, galaxy, and constellations on the wall. Very cool!

 Solar system projects

Wrapping up September

 Caleb helping David get a head start on his ABCs

Listening to Genesis 37 and coloring the story of Joseph and his brothers

Caterpillar Counting

Caped Cowboys filling a Letter C Box

 Since it was Letter C week, mommy's birthday, and Laura Numeroff month, Give a Cat a Cupcake was the perfect book for fun Friday!

Graphing, sorting, and counting with dice using colored goldfish

Working on those "tricky teens"

Illustrating their vocabulary words

Luke's "D" activities

Donuts for fun Friday, Letter D week, and wrapping up our Laura Numeroff month

 Practicing "cross hatch" strokes with colored pencils

No More Tonsils!

Last Friday Luke had his tonsils removed. Though the recovery has been rough, the actual surgery could not have gone better, and we are so grateful to God. Hopefully, Luke will be able to start swallowing his food better now, and we can get some meat on those little bones!

In the midst of ice cream, milkshakes, and popsicles, school went on in the Vaughan house!

We gathered items for our "B" bag and of course had to include boy baby David in his bumbo with the brothers!

Four part patterns with cracker shapes - rectangle, triangle, square, circle

 Positional words and some, some more, some went away stories with superheroes

 Luke working on matching upper and lowercase letters; Jonathan's four corner activity blanket is ready to go. He spends most his time in the book corner!

 This month our author study is Laura Numeroff. Luke was able to have pancakes drenched in syrup and super soft cookies dunked in milk. The yumminess slid right down!
If you Give a Pig a Pancake
If You Give a Moose a Muffin
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
The Best Mouse Cookie
Happy Birthday Mouse
If You Take a Mouse to School

Caleb does great recognizing his color words but spelling them is a whole new challenge.

"My tree!" 

Caleb picked a tree in our yard and is going to observe and record how the tree changes throughout the seasons this year. We think it's a Pin Oak :)

School Days and A New Adventure

Kennon and I made the decision that I would home school the boys this year. Caleb (5, almost 6) is in Kindergarten, Luke (4) is in PreK, Jonathan (2, almost 3) is in Preschool, and then there is baby David, the little observer who is content just to be watching it all. We discussed the pros and cons of our educational options and considered my passion and energy toward education and discipleship in the home. Then after taking all my expectations, hopes, and fears to the Lord and processing through what was in my heart with Kennon, we felt  home school was the best decision for our family right now.

It's been challenging figuring out how to school with four little ones at home. I can tell God is going to teach ME a lot this year! But even in the tough moments I still feel a deep sense of satisfaction and joy.  I'm thankful for a supportive husband who is an awesome dad and teamate and that I can trust his leadership as we seek God in what is best for our family and the discipleship of our kids... as we go along. 

 

A few books I read when I knew we were considering home school. They profoundly shaped my philosophy and vision for our children's education, and I also feel I gained a lot simply as a parent by deepening my understanding of how to help my kids reach their full potential whether I'm the primary educator or working alongside other teachers. 

 Our daily calendar. Thanks to www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com

Here are some pictures from our first week. 

Jonathan and Luke both go to Parent's Day Out once a week, and here they are with their new teachers!

Caleb attends Veritas Classical School once a week with a class of about 12 other Kindergarteners. I have two sweet friends who also have kids in his class and told me about VCS... "a unique complement to the home school family that provides valuable assistance in planning, grading, testing, motivation and accountability, partnering with parents to provide an academically rigorous home school program in a Christ-honoring atmosphere using the Christian Calssical Model of Education." Here is meeting his Veritas teacher at the park.

Some of Luke and Jonathan's Activities this week:

Jonathan on the activity blanket working on his color matching

Math time sorting by size and then color

Cindy Circle goes around and around!

I read The Child's Story Bible in the morning as the boys color their story picture to add to our Bible timeline. The boys take turns putting the stories in order and picking out one story each to narrate.

 Play dough shapes

Understanding sets of one, two, and three and left to right progression

Building hand strength and color recognition